A SEX attacker was caught out indecently assaulting a teenage girl by closed circuit cameras he claimed he had installed to catch a thief.

Sixty-nine year old Leonard Hoy was frequently captured on video parading naked around his home, Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court was told.

The girl victim at first tried to ignore him but then he touched the back of her neck and side of her face in a indecent manner, the court heard.

Hoy, of Albert Street, Burnley, denied indecent assault, on an unspecified date when the girl was 16, but was convicted after a trial.

He was acquitted of two charges of engaging in sexual activity with a child and indecent exposure.

He was also found not guilty of four charges of indecently assaulting a girl aged to eight to 13 between October 1994 and October 2000 and two charges of taking indecent photographs of a child.

Jailing Hoy for three years, Judge Christopher Foster, who watched a number of video tapes made of Hoy’s behaviour, labelled his actions as "entirely inappropriate".

The judge said: "In my opinion you have a warped view of sexual propriety."

Judge Foster said his victim, who was dressed in a school uniform, was clearly resentful of his behaviour Prosecutor Rachel Shenton said that when challenged about his habits, Hoy claimed to have had a ‘serious rash’ and would often not wear clothes for an hour or two after showering.

But he had produced no medical evidence to back up this assertion during the case, she added.

Later he admitted setting up a covert surveillance system but insisted that he had lost some money and was eager to "catch the thief", said Miss Shenton.

Hoy confessed that he had become addicted to make secret video recordings but denied getting a sexual thrill out of it.

Keith Harrison, defending, said his client had lost his home, contact with his family and most of his possessions as a result of the court case.

Vehicles belonging to him worth £16,000 had been torched while the case had been going on, he told the court.

Hoy had also been attacked at least twice while in prison, when fellow inmates discovered what he was on remand for, and now faced a hernia operation.

Mr Harrison said the offence was an isolated incident and he had no relevant previous convictions.

Judge Foster banned Hoy from working with children for 10 years but declined to make a sexual offences prevention order as the victim had been aged 16 at the time of the matter for which he was convicted.

The victim, who lived in Oldham at the time of the offence, came forward and made a complaint to police in February 2007.